Considering Succession
by shadeshark
Summary: Pressure is added to Sir Integra to produce a heir to Hellsing.
1. A Need for an Heir Arises

Disclaimer: Alucard, Integra, Walter, Hellsing, and England were all thought up by people smarter than me. None of them are mine. All will be put back nicely when I'm done with them, too.  
  
Walter listened to the house settling.  
  
Dawn was his favorite part of the day. Integra's best moods were always in the morning. The soldiers were safely in for the evening. He could be sure there was no curious vampire reading over his shoulder or playing with sharp things in his kitchen.  
  
He heard gunshots.  
  
Walter hurried through the kitchen. He paused at the door to the rest of the house. The shots had been fired from downstairs. They were the sharp cracks of a small pistol, rather than the high-powered pistols Alucard carried. Walter reasoned that either Integra was down there shooting Alucard, or Seras was.  
  
If Seras decided to use Alucard for target practice, that really wasn't Walter's problem. However, if Integra were shooting him, she might want backup, moral support, or a calming influence.  
  
Walter found Integra standing in front of Alucard's door, firing into it repeatedly. She stopped shooting, emptied a shower of shells at her feet, and reloaded.  
  
"Ah, Sir Integra?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, Walter?" Integra paused with the gun held level.  
  
"You're not wearing ear protection." He offered her the small set of foam earplugs he carried for when Seras felt compelled to listen to her music stations.  
  
"Thank you, Walter." Integra lowered the gun and clicked the safety off. "Is the sun up?"  
  
"Yes, Sir Integra."  
  
"He's asleep by now, then." Integra swung around. "Walter, we're going to shut him in the cellars."  
  
"Ah?" Walter studied the door. "Has he been informed of this?"  
  
"He will be." Integra walked down the hallway.  
  
"Is there something I should know about?"  
  
Integra swung around, her gaze fixed on him critically. "Walter, I have not yet produced an heir. You know the significance of that. And Uncle Richard has fathered a child."  
  
"Oh." Walter nodded slowly.  
  
"The child is three-three!-and I heard of his birth today." Sir Integra was trembling with rage. "He was hidden from me deliberately. I've been watching Uncle Richard for years, I've met with his consort once to discuss succession and inheritance, and now I find that I've missed something for three years."  
  
"But Alucard knew?"  
  
"Alucard knew." Integra put her hand on her hip. "Somehow, Alucard knew." She tilted her head to one side. "And he didn't think to tell me." Her voice held deep sarcasm. She walked past him, moving aside to give him space to walk beside her.  
  
"Alucard is thoroughly kept from moving against you," Walter said. "I do not believe that he has encouraged your uncle."  
  
"Uncle Richard wouldn't be so stupid as to send assassins after me. He also had a bad experience with trying to control Alucard himself. He won't try controlling him with a three-year-old. But the fact that Richard is keeping this child secret is a sign in itself." Integra noticed that Walter was working harder to keep up with her and slowed. "He's going to groom him to take this house."  
  
"This is by no means a certain sign that Richard's son will claim Hellsing." Walter's voice was wry. "Richard's strategy is outwaiting and undercutting his opponents. His bold strokes tend to fail crashingly. You were a witness to this."  
  
"He has plenty of time to plan as his child grows," said Integra, although she somewhat reassured by this fact. "And his son will be older than any heirs I produce."  
  
"The heir of Hellsing is named," Walter said. "Your Uncle Richard does not have the authority to name his son the heir regardless of who came first chronologically. Only you do."  
  
"But Richard knows this, and he still kept his child secret." Integra turned. "You said yourself that his plan has always been to undercut. Richard may have a nonfatal accident in mind for me. Picture it. I'm hurt, unable to command. . . and Richard sympathetically goes over my head and tells the Queen that there is a possible heir."  
  
Walter slowed. "What other reasons could Richard have for keeping his child secret? Do you know who the mother is?"  
  
"Yes." Integra shot him a sideways look. "He married three years ago. It was, obviously, a very hushed wedding. I never heard about that either."  
  
The two of them walked in silence. They had headed straight through the house (Walter content to keep pace with Integra until she dismissed him) and entered one of the grounds' small, ornamental gardens.  
  
"I'll have to have children," Integra said. "There's simply no other way to know that he's not trying."  
  
"Are you still going to chain Alucard?"  
  
"That's a definite possibility." Integra frowned. "Things have quieted."  
  
"Then what about Seras?"  
  
"Seras can't hide things from me like Alucard can, nor does she have an interest in seeing me replaced." Integra thought aloud.  
  
"But he is her master."  
  
Integra retraced her steps back towards the house. "I'll be in the library this morning reviewing binding symbols. I do not wish to be disturbed." 


	2. In Which Many Questions Arise, Too

Once again into the breach:  
  
If you watch the anime into the later versions, someone who appears to be Richard Hellsing is saluting the destruction of the Hellsing Organization. It looks enough like Richard for me to work on this story.  
  
And once again, every single person who appears here belongs to someone else. Probably the doctors are Hellsing canon.  
  
Quiet Evening  
  
"Pink," said Integra aloud, making a precise notation on a small calendar. "What a stupid color for a thermometer."  
  
The doctors had explained everything to her. She had to know her basal temperature. She had to keep a chart keeping track of her temperature on what day. This would help her understand her fertility cycle and the best time to visit the sperm bank.  
  
This was all getting far too personal. She'd wanted to strangle her nice woman doctor with a stethoscope.  
  
And of course, the thermometers were pink.  
  
There was a way to get this put at a distance: find a surrogate mother. Only they usually wanted to stay involved with their children, and Integra wanted Hellsing's heir to belong to the family.  
  
What a headache.  
  
Was there any way that this entire stupid process could make less sense?  
  
---  
  
"Police girl?"  
  
"Yes?" Seras looked behind her as her master stepped behind a wall. She could tell that he was feeling out of sorts; he seemed to loom a bit more than usual. Alucard moodily sat at her small table. Seras took a seat on her coffin lid.  
  
"I hope you can explain something to me."  
  
"Yes?" Seras asked again, swinging her feet.  
  
Alucard gave her a sideways look. "What's ovulation?"  
  
"Where did this question come from?" Seras asked, startled.  
  
"Never mind," growled Alucard.  
  
"Ovulation is the point of month where a woman's eggs are released into her uterus," said Seras, guessing back from her high school textbooks.  
  
"Eggs? Women have eggs?" Alucard looked at her with blank astonishment.  
  
"Of course. Several thousand. Er, maybe billions, I don't remember. But there were a lot! More than they'll need in one lifetime."  
  
"You're making this up," Alucard accused, standing.  
  
"I'm certainly not," said Seras firmly, folding her arms.  
  
Her insistence settled the vampire back into his chair. "Eggs," Alucard mused. "Ah. With shells?"  
  
"No," said Seras, smothering a giggle. She saw her master's eyebrows just a bit. She coughed.  
  
"How. . . big are these eggs?"  
  
"They're tiny." Seras put her fingertips together and held them up. "Cell- sized."  
  
"Cells?" Alucard looked at her with bafflement. "Oh, wait. Walter told me about cells."  
  
"Good," said Seras. "Well, the egg has half the data needed to make a new person, but there's still another half missing."  
  
There was silence. Alucard was holding his own fingertips together in unconscious mimicry. "So where. . ." Alucard finally queried. He looked up at her from under his bangs.  
  
"The father's sperm," said Seras promptly, shoulders quivering. "You know, the fluid-"  
  
"I understand that part," Alucard growled. Seras had never seen him look so disgusted. He sat for a moment before he finally looked up at her. "Well, how does that work?"  
  
"Well, one of the sperm released will find the egg," began Seras.  
  
"Wait," interrupted Alucard sharply. "I thought you said sperm was the fluid."  
  
"Well, it's made up of a lot of little living cells." Confronted with a befuddled stare, Seras gave him a footnote. "They look kind of like tadpoles."  
  
"That's it." Alucard stood and sank into the wall. Seras watched him go with utter bafflement.  
  
Maybe Walter could explain this one. She went up to the kitchen. Walter was preparing Sir Integra's tea.  
  
"Master isn't much of a biologist, is he?" she asked.  
  
"Why do you say that?" Walter turned.  
  
"He was asking about reproduction," said Seras.  
  
"Really." Walter's eyes narrowed slightly. "What did he want to know?"  
  
"What 'ovulation' is," Seras explained happily. "What's going on?"  
  
"Sir Integra is considering using a sperm bank to produce an heir," Walter explained. "Alucard appears to have caught part of it. Your discretion is appreciated, Miss Victoria. Sir Integra prefers to keep her plans to herself."  
  
"Oh." Seras was tempted to steal a cookie, if only to look at, as Walter carefully arranged the tray. "Does this mean I shouldn't tell him anything else?"  
  
"That depends. Did you laugh at him?"  
  
"Not really. . . at," squirmed Seras. "More like, um, it was how he said it."  
  
"Then he won't ask again," said Walter. "You've stung his pride. He's gone to the Hellsing library, where I've already, ah, tidied, and where Sir Integra will chase him away because she's researching a very old problem. Then he'll try the public library. Since there will be no librarians at night, I can rely on my friend the Dewey Decimal System to hold him at bay." The two left the kitchen and started down a hallway.  
  
"Is that why you wouldn't let me explain to him how reference computers worked last year?"  
  
"Quite correct, Miss Victoria."  
  
"How do you know what he'll do so well?"  
  
"Well, when we first met, he still wasn't too sure about the germ theory of disease." Walter's mouth formed a tiny smirk. "Alucard keeps right up to date on weaponry, but don't ever ask him to splint a broken limb. His idea of a painkiller, germicide, and life support system is his blood." Walter and Seras were on their way towards the stairs to the library. "Tell me, Miss Victoria, have you had any experience with child care?"  
  
"I had to babysit for my little nieces once. They put gum in my hair and a mouse down my shirt." Seras looked glumly at the teapot.  
  
"I see. Do not share this with Sir Integra. Ah-" they heard raised voices inside the library. The strident tones of Sir Integra at full blast were almost outdoing the roaring of a startled vampire. "Alucard has found Sir Integra's research."  
  
"Er, what's she doing?" Seras was prepared to step in front of Walter in case of stray bullets coming through the walls, although she heard no gunshots yet. Integra had succeeded in silencing Alucard and was still making her feelings known.  
  
"Well, Alucard has made Sir Integra feel that it is best for him to be out of her way for a while. I don't think he liked discovering that." Walter tipped his head to one side, listening to them. "I think that I should delay delivering the master's tea for perhaps twenty minutes. Would you care to join me for a snack in the kitchen?"  
  
"Uhh, sure." Seras had already hurt her master's pride once. His realizing that she had overheard his being called a treacherous worm who couldn't overthrow a stuffed pillowcase would put even more distance between them. "I think I'd like that." 


	3. In Which Many People Plot Backstage

Again: thanks to everyone who made comments. Cookies for you!  
  
Those of you who aren't commenting should also have cookies. Or, if you prefer, ice cream. Hopefully you are entertained. If you aren't, I'll kill Uncle Richard for you.  
  
Hellsing is not my intellectual property! It was thought up by a Ms. Kouta Hirano. Christopher Chant belongs to Diana Wynne Jones; He-Man belongs to someone else; Dutch belongs to, I believe, FOX. All of those credited should feel free to have two scoops and sprinkles. AND cherries.  
  
___________________  
  
Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing rolled a sheet of paper between her fingers. Despite the late hour, she was still in the library, pursued from her bed by the desire for a cigar. The library, with its keen sensors and gas system for fire dampening, was the one place in the manor she never took a cigar. And since she had decided to carry a baby, she had quit them.  
  
"I know you're still there," Integra said sharply. The clock ticked. Integra sipped her tea, make an elegant notation on a thin sheet of paper, and placed it between two leaves of a heavy book.  
  
"My master does not trust my ability to care for her?" Alucard flowed down from the thick curtains, pooled, and rose into a column.  
  
"Your master understands that you can be a manipulative creature." Integra folded her book and placed it aside, lacing her fingers on the desktop. "I know exactly how you handled the police-Miss Seras Victoria. You gave her a false decision: live or die. You never offered to move to one side and shoot, as you could have done in a heartbeat." Integra's eyes were narrowed. "I will not allow you to place me in such a dilemma."  
  
"The police girl had not yet found her way." Alucard draped himself over the edge of the desk. Integra put a hand on her book to be sure that it (or her bookmark) wouldn't be removed. "It was not against her will."  
  
"It was a deception," Integra pointed out, thin-lipped.  
  
"I did not have time to argue."  
  
"And I do not have time to argue with you." Integra pulled her book under her elbow and flipped open a second tome. "I intend to isolate you until my heir is born." She didn't even focus on the chapter headings. She was aware of the minute shift of color as Alucard's eyes widened and narrowed.  
  
A knock on the door cut off their conversation. "Come in."  
  
Walter entered. He took in Alucard, brooding, and Integra, pretending to read. "Our agents have brought further news of your Uncle Richard's son." Integra loved the way it was always "your Uncle Richard." She had never heard Richard's name coupled with the Hellsing surname since her Uncle had been carried wounded from the house.  
  
"Thank you, Walter." She reached out for the tray he carried. Alucard didn't move while Integra opened up the folder. "He's got the Hellsing eyes that somehow skipped Richard. Cute little kid. And he'll never have this house." She glanced at the box her elderly servant carried. "Alucard, please leave us until I call you. Entirely."  
  
"Of course, Master." Alucard retreated into the curtains again.  
  
"He's caught a little," said Walter, putting the box on the table in front of her. Integra recognised the box; Walter had picked up her catalogue from the sperm bank. She opened it, unfolded the letter lying on top, scanned it, and closed it again with a sigh. She handed the letter back to Walter. "It was inevitable. Burn this as soon as you're out of the library." She opened the book. "My word."  
  
Walter visibly restrained herself from looking over her shoulder. Integra pushed the book out to let him see. "Portraits, vital statistics, personal information, and a family medical history. No wonder it's called a 'catalogue.' I feel like I'm shopping for a pet."  
  
Walter shrugged at the catalogue. "I'm sure you'll have enough information to make your choice."  
  
"And then I have a year or so to change my mind, because the success rate is so low." Integra sighed. "Doing this often will get expensive. I can't wait to resolve this one at our budget meeting.  
  
"I'll have to do some background checks to be sure these people are who they say they are-the bank didn't explain their security." Integra stared at the names, tapping her pen on the page. "I need a strong family history in mental health and leadership." She frowned. "Maybe I should make requests."  
  
"I think you would be better advised to keep this simple."  
  
"You're right." Integra dragged her eyes from the rolodex. "Well. Adam Eternity's family background appears solid in leadership. But how can weight and height both be 'alternating?' No. Christopher Chant. . . no record of leadership in his family." Integra gave up and turned the page. "Major Dutch Schaefer. This is closer to what I want, but there's an odd notation here; he seems to have had an episode of delusion during a stressful mission. No. Hellsing's heir needs to be strong despite all odds." Integra turned over a few more pages. "Walter, I need more tea."  
  
When he was back, the catalogue bore signs of being thrown at a wall, but Integra was her calm self. "Thank you, Walter. Why is there a bare spot on the shelves?"  
  
"That was my work, Sir Integra. I was merely tidying."  
  
"I see. I thought that our resident might have moved the books on binding." Integra's hand motioned as if to strike a lighter. "I was going to ask him where his binding spells are, but that would be cruel. Father's notes will be here somewhere. Please call ahead to the bank. I prefer #10579."  
  
Walter repeated the number back to be certain that he'd caught it, recovered the catalogue, and departed. He didn't dream of checking the catalogue to see who Hellsing had chosen.  
  
On a hill a fair distance away, Alucard was in no danger of following Integra's plans. He had was attempting to finish another interminable phone conversation with Richard Hellsing. What a boring man, made interesting only by his extreme greed. His quibbling was getting on the vampire's nerves. Optimistically wondering if vampire activity in England were going to pick up again soon, Alucard got rid of the man to go attend to his next ploy. Alucard sauntered back towards the Hellsing Organization's headquarters. He was almost cheerful enough to start whistling. 


	4. In Which Almost Everyone Lives Happily E...

Disclaimer and opening:  
  
All you readers are appreciated, whether you leave me little notes or not. Not that I don't love little notes. I even accept anonymous reviews. :)  
  
As you all undoubtedly know, Hellsing isn't mine.  
  
________  
  
Seras stood in front of the sealed door.  
  
She had been given firm orders not to open the door; even not to touch it. Undoubtedly, Alucard would be the first to reprimand her if she did.  
  
She wanted to speak, but she doubted her master wanted to hear anything; she had her freedom and he did not. Seras turned and walked back through the door that Integra had recently banged shut.  
  
She was almost at the top of the stairs to the rest of the house when she thought she heard a phone ringing.  
  
"Odd," said Seras to herself, turning. She regarded the distance below the stairs with suspicion.  
  
The noise had stopped.  
  
Seras looked up at the metal air vents. This part of the house had tenuous, winding connections back to the main part of the castle. The airways had probably carried the sound from an office upstairs.  
  
*~*  
  
Integra left the doctor's office, unsurprised to see that Walter was right on time. She climbed into the backseat with a sigh of relief. Thank goodness that was over with, for another month at least. She had dedicated more thought to her previously insignificant vaginal mucosa than she ever wanted to again.  
  
She was frowned at the folder left for her in the backseat. She unsealed and opened it. To her delight, it was her information on Uncle Richard's wife.  
  
"She divorced him last year? Good for her." Her expression went thoughtful a moment later. "She's refused custody of the child," Integra noticed. "Ever. Perhaps he wanted an heir enough to switch her birth control meds with sugar pills?"  
  
"Or he somehow threatened her." Walter glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "Drove her away. Blackmail, perhaps."  
  
"No. . . if she were truly a difficulty, I'm afraid she'd be dead. She wanted to leave him and the child." Integra frowned at the second document. "Reports of disturbing the peace? Uncle, what are you up to?"  
  
*~*  
  
Alucard felt Seras walk away. A faint smile shone in the light slanting through the grilled window.  
  
Ever since his first captivity, he had decided to put a few amenities in his cell. Integra had discovered the cooler stashed with medical blood, and had removed it with a curt "very funny." She had left the two pillows under his post, although she had given him a stern look.  
  
She had missed the most important addition he had made to his cell.  
  
The cell phone was small and gray. Alucard had chosen its signal carefully, trying to pick one that would be hard to trace or intercept. He thought he'd had some success (Integra had never questioned him about it so far.) He preferred to speak to Richard on a land line, but Integra wasn't likely to overlook a phone added down here. He could always give it a try. . .  
  
The phone rang. Alucard lifted it with a thought, shoving the answer button savagely. The moron was calling half an hour early; if Seras had been outside the door when he'd called, he'd have placed them both in an awkward position.  
  
"Do you have the silver cross?"  
  
Seras or Integra had never heard that voice from him before. Alucard's tones had become lighter as he mimicked the voice of an older woman.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you're above the church building."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And the boy won't come to interfere yet?"  
  
"He's back in the car."  
  
"You have the blood?"  
  
"I do."  
  
Alucard could tell. After all, it was his blood, no matter how far it was from his body. Once spilled, it was potent enough to be picked up by any sensitive to it. "Pour it over both hands."  
  
The man dropped his phone somewhere in the process. Alucard listened with great interest to the scuffling and swearing on the other end. "All right."  
  
"First, widdershins around the church." Alucard heard him start crashing through the brush. Ah.  
  
"Look," said Richard Hellsing the second time around, "are you sure you're not putting me on?"  
  
"After you've come so far?" Alucard stretched as best he could within his confines. Stupid sanctified straightjackets. The female voice was becoming second nature to him. He'd almost used it on Seras the other day.  
  
"Sometimes I feel this is just a joke-"  
  
Alucard concentrated on chilling his essence to colder than that of the stone around him. Richard gasped as the vampire's blood on his hands went icy.  
  
"You do indeed have a purpose," Alucard purred.  
  
"Yes, but all this crashing around at night-"  
  
"I must know that you will obey me in small things. Even the priests who cower in the monastery recognise your allegiance. And your work is not done. Go."  
  
"I mean, dismembering the goat cost me a suit-" but Richard was moving again. "Are you here?"  
  
"I am close."  
  
"Good, because that must be you I hear-"  
  
Alucard had been waiting so very long for this. He picked up "Foul creature!" roared from somewhere in the background.  
  
"What? Wait!"  
  
Alucard smirked, calling his blood back to him from Richard's hands. The phone dropped. A moment later, something heavy fell on it.  
  
*~*  
  
Sir Integra stared at her guest. "I'm sorry. Perhaps you would like to start over? I'm not following you."  
  
"I have an apology to deliver to your family," Father Anderson said. He sounded genuinely humbled. "Your uncle's sanity was injured by the work he must have done with your country. Proximity with that pet hellbeast of yours is not good for the soul."  
  
"Is my uncle all right?"  
  
Anderson cleared his throat. "Recently he's been terrorizing a small abbey, leaving black goat parts spread around the doors and windows, throwing things, running around it at night. . . actions very similar to those of chipped vampires who were also recently in the area. I'm afraid that while your uncle was running around the church dressed in red and black, I somehow mistook the taint of madness for something worse. I am sorry, Sir Integra."  
  
"You're telling me that you killed my uncle."  
  
"Yes."  
  
Integra didn't even blink.  
  
"He was wearing a knife," Anderson placed a hand on the box he carried, "and had probably been the person to assault a priest the evening before. He was indeed becoming a danger. But. . ." under her steady gaze, the man ran out of words.  
  
"Please hand over the box." Integra opened it. She found a suit of red and black clothing with a very tattered cape. She held up the clothes. "No holes?"  
  
"Decapitation," said Anderson, still with that apologetic note.  
  
"Anderson, you've killed my men before," Integra said, her deep fury just beginning to show.  
  
Anderson flushed. "When they were actually serving a vampire, and not pretending."  
  
Integra picked up the grooved silver cross and turned it over in her fingers. "He had this?"  
  
"That was on his body. In his car was an empty vial of what seemed to be blood, six knives of blackened silver, and a small child. I admit that had I not found the knives and child first, I might have waited longer before I attacked. I assumed the child was to take the place of the next goat, and I was. . . angry."  
  
"Was the child unharmed?" Integra's head came up.  
  
"Yes. He was Richard's son. I do not know why Richard took him along. He's downstairs now. I'm afraid that with the mother uninterested in raising him, his welfare is offered into your hands."  
  
"I've certainly heard of my uncle's being caught disturbing the peace. I didn't know he'd sunk further." Integra propped her elbows on her desk. "Even if he was related to my family, I do not know how much further his attacks would have escalated. You have killed a madman with no relation to vampires. I will allow your church elders to judge your failure."  
  
"I shall ask Enrico Maxwell to send you notification of their decision." Anderson bowed to her and retreated.  
  
Integra sat perfectly still until she was quite sure that Anderson was out of the house. Then she slid back her chair and stood.  
  
*~*  
  
Ah, discovered.  
  
Alucard smiled at Integra as she picked her way down the stairs, his calling card dangling from one hand, her gun in the other.  
  
"I don't know how you did that," she said dangerously, swinging the small, grooved cross in one hand. "Are you trying to make me think that you always planned to deliver that man's son to Hellsing?"  
  
"No," Alucard replied. "I was just playing with a Hellsing. Eliminating him seemed to be the final step needed to restore your peace of mind."  
  
"So you had him go terrorize a monastery." Integra swung away. "Alucard, you go too far." She held up the cross. A moment later, she spoke again. "And you have the gall to have him carry your signature piece to his death."  
  
"Your enemy was killed by your enemy. Can't you appreciate that?" Where was the woman's soul? He wished humans would show a bit more appreciation for irony.  
  
"Father Anderson came to deliver his effects and Richard's child. He also came to apologize personally."  
  
"Why didn't you let me out?" Alucard gasped, wounded. What had he missed?  
  
"Because I didn't want my home torn up in a pitched battle between Good and Evil. Again." Integra paced.  
  
Hoping to get out of the straitjacket then, Alucard hinted with a summary, "so I wasn't plotting against you, you have Richard's son, and all is once again well with Hellsing."  
  
"That would seem to be an accurate assessment of the situation." Integra turned for the door.  
  
"Are you going to let me out?"  
  
Integra glanced back over her shoulder. "In a month. The pregnancy test won't be accurate for three weeks. I think I could use some peace of mind about this child."  
  
Alucard watched the heavy door slam behind her and sighed mournfully.  
  
Then he began the agreeable task of mentally composing the note of condolence he would send to Anderson for bungling a job.  
  
Far above him, Integra trashed her pink thermometers with absolute glee.  
  
___________  
  
Author's Note:  
  
Okies, I think I have everything.  
  
Why was the blood on Richard's hands such a big deal? So Anderson would sense "vampire!" as soon as he got near. It would be such a waste of a good plan if Anderson merely hauled Richard to the local police station for trespassing. Alucard took a chance on the paladin's noticing the blood before he dissolved it, but the risk was minimal in the darkness around the monastery. And there was no chance of Anderson tracing it back to him; how would Anderson tell his blood from anyone else's?  
  
It made sense to me that Anderson brought Richard's son to Integra. He murdered the kid's father; he's not going to add kidnapping to that, even if he doesn't approve of Auntie Integra.  
  
Now I need a new plot. Come here, my fuzzy plot bunnies! Verbal carrots! 


End file.
